<p>Anyone have any information on AMDA in Los Angeles, CA. Good or bad. I am trying to decide if I should go. I am a high school senior.</p>
<p>My daughter was accepted with a partial scholarship. We visited the campus in LA. It is quite an impressive facility and looks to have the potential to deliver a good program. If you are interested in film or TV it is in a perfect location. Depending on her other application she may end up going to AMDA.</p>
<p>BTW she was accepted into the BFA program.</p>
<p>gonabastar, make sure you do your research well. AMDA has a certain reputation in the theatre community, maybe not entirely deserved, but the fact remains that many people do not have a positive view of this program. Explore all your opportunities and be an informed consumer. Best of luck.</p>
<p>My understanding of AMDA's reputation is that this is from the New York campus and is outdated by a few years. Does anyone or any current students have anything new to add?</p>
<p>alwaysamom and IanJoseph:</p>
<p>Yes alwaysamom your right and we did a ton of research recently and I have decided not to go to LA AMDA. I found out a lot of things that don't appeal to me and I want to go to a University and get a BFA degree. I am still waiting for an acceptance into USC and if I don't get in I might go to Santa Monica College and try again for USC or another theatre school later. Anyone have any good information about SMC. </p>
<p>IanJoseph, I recommend you do a lot of research. Especially look at all the past AMDA information in previous threads in the Musical Theatre Majors forum.</p>
<p>My D wants to do theater and not musical theater, but AMDA is no longer a consideration as she was accepted to the UCLA Theater - Acting program. Unfortunately all the information in the forums is about the musical theater program at AMDA.
AMDA LA do offer a BFA degree though.
If USC is anything like their audition process then I would definitely recommend against USC.</p>
<p>I just got accepted. What are some of the negative thoughts about it?
And positive ones for that matter. I have been rejected from Pace theatre programs and CalArts and still waiting for a few others but I think they will be rejections, too, so I may not have another choice but AMDA and another non-audition school-Columbia College Chicago. So, any advice?</p>
<p>Margot33,
We visited the AMDA campus in LA when my daughter was still thinking of the BFA program and were favorably impressed for what it is. I would suggest you visit and talk with other students who are already in the program and see what they think.
We have a few reservations:
- The BFA program is relatively new
- There is some negativity surrounding AMDA which mainly seems to come from New York and MT experiences. I must say that the negativity is quite dated and is not recent. I wish someone who is actually in the AMDA LA BFA program would post and tell us about their experience.
- This would not be at all the typical general college experience which we thought we would like to see.
- The location in LA has it’s good and bad sides. You need to visit to decide for yourself.
- It is a program that concentrates on preparing you for stage and film. The curriculum does look very good. The quality would obviously depend on faculty and students.</p>
<p>Okay, thank you very much! Unfortunately for me, I don’t think I’ll be able to visit before I make a decision where to go. But I will keep looking into it. I don’t know if I really have many other options anyways because, like I said, I think I will get rejected from most of the other schools I applied to. So, I may end up there no matter what.</p>
<p>But could you possibly expand on what you mean by saying it wouldn’t be typical college experience? I really wish I could go there and actually talk to the current students, but I don’t think I’ll be able to visit.</p>
<p>In my opinion, the typical college experience would give you the opportunity to meet and interact with students who are non-BFAs and non arts majors. Also a typical college experience would be on some campus (or not) with thousands of students. AMDA is small with a few hundred students of which only a relative few would be taking the BFA route.
One advantage of AMDA, though is the ability to take one or more semesters in New York as well as the ability to finish in a shorter time by taking classes in the summer.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’m a transfer student, so, honestly, I’ve gotten the feel for a college with different majors and stuff. Also, my college here is small, so I’m sort of used to it. And the summer sessions are a big deal to me. Anyways, I think I will be able to visit after all. And I’m still waiting to hear back from a few school, so depending where I get in (or don’t get in) I might not have another choice for a BFA.</p>